John Giesecke

2/27/1912 ~ 11/19/2008

John Price Giesecke, Jr., better known to all as “Jack”, passed quietly from this life on November 19, 2008, at the age of ninety-six. He was born in Angleton on February 27, 1912, and resided there for most of his life. He was the great grandson of a German merchant in the Republic of Texas. His family owned dry goods and general merchandise stores in West Columbia, Quintana, Anchor, and Angleton for over 100 years.
Jack’s mother, Virgie Glass Giesecke, valued education. She taught him so well before he started to school that he began his formal schooling in the second grade at age six instead of starting in the first grade with others of his age group. When he graduated from Angleton High School in 1928, he was only sixteen. He excelled at sports during his high school years, and the highlight of his sports career was winning a gold medal in pole vaulting at the state meet his senior year.
His athletic ability made it possible for him to attend college at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, during the depression years of the 1930s. There, he lettered in football, basketball, and track He also played baseball and coached the freshman football and basketball teams. He served as student representative on the athletic council and placed fifth in scoring in the Texas basketball conference in 1935. He was also President of the Senior Class at Southwestern, Vice President of the Mood Hall Dormitory Honor Council, and a member of the Student Senate. In 1935, he was elected “Mr. Southwestern”. The culmination of his sports career came in 2007, when he was chosen for the first Angleton High School Sports Hall of Fame.
After college graduation in 1935, Jack became the coach at Trinity High School in Trinity, Texas. There he met and married a Trinity girl, Jessie Matthews. After a couple of years as coach in Trinity, they moved to Angleton. Jack coached at Angleton until he hired on with Dow Chemical in 1940. He was among the first to be employed at Dow. In the beginning, his job was to ride the perimeter of the plant on horseback for the Plant Protection department. In the early 1950’s his talent for writing landed him a job as editor of the Dow Texan, and employees from that era well remember his humor column “Skeebo Skuttlebutt” which appeared in that publication. Jack had a human interest approach as editor of the Dow Texan, and when executives at Dow decided to pursue an approach for their newspaper that was more product and business centered than it was people-centered, Jack transferred to the Beutel Building where he finished his Dow years in the Invoicing and Accounting Department. All he ever wanted to be was a football coach, but applying for a job at Dow was probably the best economic decision he ever made.
Jack enjoyed a long and successful life blessed with incredibly good health and little tragedy. He had his frustrations, difficulties, and disappointments in life, like anyone else, but his basic philosophy enabled him to maintain an enviable level of contentment. Throughout his years he was well liked by those he met. People enjoyed being in his company because of his sense of humor, easy going personality, and sense of fair play. He never went to kindergarten, but somewhere along the way he learned that Golden Rule of treating others as he would like to be treated. It is a simple philosophy, but an effective one, and that was the rule by which he lived his life. He will be missed by many, but Jack and his stories of growing up in Angleton will live on in the hearts of his family and in the research library and Collections of Brazoria County Historical Museum., where donations can be made in his memory.
Jessie and Jack were married for 66 years before her death in 2004. The family wishes to thank the doctors, nurses, Angleton EMS, and the special caregivers who have served both Jack and Jessie in their last years. At 96, Jack took no prescription medicines, had no heart trouble, no high blood pressure, no hearing loss, and no diabetes. His full head of hair was envied by men half his age. He was truly descended from pioneer stock—tough and resilient like those who first settled the area that is now Brazoria County.
Jack was preceded in death by his parents Virgie and Johnny Giesecke, brothers Irwin and Adriance, and his wife Jessie Matthews Giesecke, He is survived by his brother Rob Roy Giesecke of Manvel, his daughters, Virginia (Ginny) Johnson and Jamie Murray and sons-in-law Lester Johnson and Stanley Murray of Angleton, a first cousin, Emma Pauline Westbrook of Crockett, his brother’s children Irwin Davis Giesecke, Jr. of Jacksonville Florida, Tommy Giesecke of Oklahoma, Jack Giesecke of Port Lavaca, and many other nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Visitation will be Friday evening, November 21, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Palms Funeral Home in Angleton. Services will be conducted at Palms on Saturday, November 22, at 2:00 p.m. with Leland Rogers officiating. A brief graveside service at Angleton Cemetery will follow.


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